Re: [Portal: Holly & Noah]
Holly heard Noah's reaction in his head, but he didn't stop for it. I mean, he knew. Holly knew. He knew he'd made noise slipping on the tree gunk, and he knew the leaves were loud. He could hear it over the ringing, and that meant it was a sound that would fucking carry. And his own heart was slamming against his ribcage. Fear, adrenaline, this insane need to move, and his cheeks were wet with tears. Not that he realized he was crying, but he was absolutely fucking crying. And he could hear the thing behind him. He could hear it getting closer. It was big. Big enough so that he knew the sound was coming from higher, taller. It lurched, it lunged, and Holly zigged and zagged, slipped and righted himself, cursed and cried, and he tried to figure out where the tree was. He tried to see it. To hear it. And then he just fucking focused on Noah's voice... thoughts? Noah's thoughts, and he stopped thinking and trying to figure it out himself. Feelfeelfeel, until he saw a thick trunk up ahead.
It felt right. He wouldn't have been able to say why or how, but it did, and the air around him felt too fucking thin to breathe, and fuck it, because the thing grabbed at the back of his suit. It ripped, and he was yanked back, and he fucking SCREAMED.
He fell hard on the leaves, and he immediately turned over and tried to scramble backwards. The blowtorch-gun-thing was like three feet away, having fallen, and Holly froze on his knees as he looked up at... IT.
He wasn't fucking sure what to call it. He was just frozen. He was so fucking frozen. It wasn't like anything he'd seen before, not even in all his fantastical television-movie-YouTube viewing. And it was just a second, but it felt like it was a lifetime. A lifetime of fuckstopheartpanic, and then the thing lunged, its face opening up like some obscene Disney flower gone fucking wrong, and he tried to slide back, to turn, to grab for the torch.
PAINSEARINGPAIN, and he wasn't sure what the fuck was digging into the flesh and bone of his right leg, but he could literally taste the blood that rose into his mouth, bile following as pain made him bite down on his tongue and cry out between clenched teeth. PAINPAINPAIN He stretched. Stretch, stretch, reach, GODPLEASE, and he felt the barest hint of metal against his finger as he made contact with the fallen weapon.
PAINSOMUCHPAIN, and he turned over, onto his back and flat on leaves that were now soaked with his own blood. The thing was over him. RIGHT THERE, and he lifted the weapon and pulled the trigger.
The heat was bright-blue blinding, and the thing SCREECHED and fell away, and the world wavered in and out and in and out and in and out.